Hardline home secretary who clashed with Liz Truss: Suella Braverman quits after tumultuous 43 days in office including criticised the PM, making up her own immigration policy and jeopardising India trade deal
- The hardline Brexiteer was handed the top job as an acknowledgement of her popularity with the Tory Right
- But during her tenure she made a series of outbursts that put her at odds with Liz Truss’s policies
- The 42-year-old mother-of two hit the headlines just yesterday with a rant against the ‘tofu-eating wokerati’
- At Tory conference she attacked the PM for U-turning over plans to axe the 45p top rate of income tax
Suella Braverman was only in the Home Office for a matter of weeks but she spent most of it seemingly positioning herself for a tilt at another job – that of prime minister.
The hardline Brexiteer was handed the top job as an acknowledgement of her popularity with the right of the party in the summer leadership contest, and for switching to Team Truss when she was knocked out.
But during her tenure she made a series of outbursts that put her at odds with Liz Truss, raising suggestions she was positioning herself for the next leadership race.
In a letter, Ms Braverman said she was resigning for breaching processes by sending an email from her personal account about a forthcoming ministerial statement on immigration.
But in another hammer blow for the PM’s chances of clinging on, she also complained that the government was breaking promises. She swiped that when people made ‘mistakes’ – something Ms Truss has admitted – the right thing to do was quit.
Grant Shapps is apparently being lined up to take her place.
Rumours are swirling about a huge bust-up between Ms Braverman and Ms Truss – who were rivals in the Conservative leadership contest – over visas policy last night.
The 42-year-old mother-of two hit the headlines just yesterday with a rant against the ‘tofu-eating wokerati’ for effectively preventing police from arresting eco-zealots who have caused mayhem and misery during weeks of protest.
She hit out at MPs who voted against tough new measures to strengthen police powers to deal with activists more quickly.
Addressing the Commons as MPs debated the Public Order Bill, Mrs Braverman said: ‘I’m afraid it’s the Labour Party, it’s the Lib Dems, it’s the coalition of chaos, it’s the Guardian-reading, tofu-eating wokerati – dare I say, the anti-growth coalition – that we have to thank for the disruption we are seeing on our roads today.’
Her comments came as police arrested two Just Stop Oil protesters who spent 36 hours suspended from the QEII bridge, closing a major transport link between Kent and Essex due to safety fears.
At the Conservative Party conference a fortnight ago she also attacked the PM for U-turning over plans to axe the 45p top rate of income tax.
She launched a swipe as the PM tried to regain her balance, branding the U-turn on axing the 45p tax rate ‘disappointing’ and accusing rebels of a ‘coup’.
She was also blamed recently for jeopardizing a free trade deal with India by accusing its people of being the worst at overstaying visas in the UK.
The hardline Brexiteer was handed the top job as an acknowledgement of her popularity with the right of the party in the summer leadership contest, and for switching to Team Truss when she was knocked out.
In a letter, Ms Braverman said she was resigning for breaching processes by sending an email from her personal account about a forthcoming ministerial statement on immigration.
The new Home Secretary has previously battled against woke ‘witch trials’ and warned against diversity zealots in Whitehall.
Suella Braverman’s failed Tory leadership bid, which saw her eliminated in the second ballot of MPs, was inspired by a hardline vision of tax cuts, border control and an anti-Net Zero ethos.
But while initially seen as the dark horse pick for the right-wing of the Tory Party, she threw her support behind the surging Liz Truss as MPs coalesced around the new Prime Minister.
The staunch Brexiteer, who served loyally in Boris Johnson’s Cabinet as Attorney General, was appointed to replace Priti Patel as home secretary.
Like Miss Patel, she is of Indian ancestry – her parents, of Goan and Mauritian origins, emigrated to Britain in the 1960s from East Africa before setting up base in Harrow, north-west London.
Her mother, a nurse by profession, ensured politics was a part of family life. A Tory councillor for 16 years, she also stood for Parliament in 2001 and 2003.
Mrs Braverman herself was an early adopter of Tory values, serving as president of the Cambridge University Conservative Association while studying law.
After two failed parliamentary runs, she was elected as MP for Fareham in Hampshire in 2015 and rose through the party ranks quickly.
She chaired the pro-Leave European Research Group until she was promoted to a ministerial role at the Department for Exiting the European Union under Theresa May. Under Mr Johnson, she replaced Geoffrey Cox as Attorney General in 2020.
After dropping out of the Tory leadership race this summer, she praised both Liz Truss and Kemi Badenoch, but suggested her supporters should back the former as she had the best chance of making it to the final two.
Speaking in Birmingham Ms Braverman launched an astonishing attack on the PM herself and Chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng. She said she backed the original decision to scrap the 45p top rate of income tax for Britons earning more than £150,000, adding: ‘I’m disappointed about the subsequent reversal but, I accept their reasons and it doesn’t affect my support for the prime minister.’
She then received support from Simon Clarke, the Levelling-Up Secretary and a hitherto close ally of the PM, who said she was speaking ‘a lot of good sense’.
In recent years Mrs Braverman has engaged in a war on ‘woke’ elements in society. In 2019 she suggested the Conservatives were ‘engaged in a battle against Cultural Marxism’.
When setting out her leadership priorities in July, she said: ‘We need to get rid of all of this woke rubbish and actually get back to a country where describing a man and a woman in terms of biology does not mean that you’re going to lose your job.’
And in an article for The Daily Mail a month later, the Attorney General warned against woke ‘witch trials’ and said she had scrapped equality and diversity training in her own department.
She has also said schools do not legally need to accommodate pupils who want to change their gender.
Outside politics, Mrs Braverman has two children with her husband Rael, whom she married at the House of Commons in 2018.
She has faced questions over her involvement with the controversial Buddhist Triratna sect.
The Triratna order, formerly one of Buddhism’s largest sects in the UK, has been the subject of historic sexual abuse allegations.
Mrs Braverman is believed to have attended meetings and retreats organised by the group, and was known as a ‘mitra’ – or friend – within the order.
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